Friday, November 30, 2007

Yesterday's Christmas party was a blast! We sat around in N's sunroom and it was perfect weather because the sun was actually shining. The food was great and I was sooooo stuffed. I wasn't hungry for supper but had some soup and crackers at 8:30pm otherwise, I'd wake up hungry in the middle of the night.

I got Christmas prezzies - mostly the edible kind. Yum! And our group presented A with the quilt that we've all been secretly working on (please click to embiggen).

A's going away for about 6 months and we wanted to give her something that would remind her of us.

This was the quilt that I was basting on the weekend. The block is called Double Maple Leaf and the pattern can be found here. Can you tell which blocks are mine? Instead of piecing the stem of the leaf, I dug out some cotton yarn and couched it onto the background fabric.

I am working furiously on Anna's xxx. My goal for today is 18 rows of charted knitting. Every other row is a plain row but it starts out at 296 sts and goes up to 368. It's a lot of knitting and I want to get it done today. I have about 5 knitting hours left (in between laundry and eating) before I have to go out this evening. I have set myself a goal for finishing this thing - Dec 12th and then it gets washed and blocked and dried. Hopefully, it'll be wrapped and ready for wear waaaay before Christmas day. If I get it done on time, I'm going to treat myself to the yarn for the Imogen pattern that I just bought. If I don't get it done, I'll have to use stash yarn. So cheer me on because I'm going to need it.

ETA: I'm going to bed now. Just finished row 8. Row 7 is a killer - in a 18 stitch repeat, there are 3 plain stitches and 4 cables to work. Ugh! 2512 stitches done and 3152 to go. I didn't even get halfway - sniff sniff.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

There is something seriously wrong with me. I've been such a yarnaholic. Today, I made my last trip to Burnaby Knitworks and bought myself 11 skeins of this:

Dunno what I'll make with it but it's a gorgeous cranberry red that I just couldn't pass up. Plus, I've bought myself the Imogen jacket pattern. Wouldn't it look lovely in some Malabrigo? Speaking of Malabrigo, do not be surprised if I buy some of the lace yarn while I'm at knit nite.

Here is the status of my latest mitten:

I finished the cable chart so it's finally photogenic. I still haven't figured out how to shape the top of the mitten and I'm pretty sure I'll run out of yarn. Ugh!

There was some good daylight yesterday so I took pictures of the Sweet Georgia Christmas ornaments.

I love making them and I wish I had more time to do so.

I finally joined the bits of Anna's mumble mumble mumble together and after knitting a few rows, I'm short 4 stitches somehow. Looking back, it seems that I forgot a set of increases. So now I have to rip it all back into seperate pieces and fudge it a little. This is going to be such a pain in the butt. We're talking 272 stitches per row. *sniffle*

In preparation for party week (quilt gang's Christmas lunch/party tomorrow, Pampered Chef party Fri nite, and former employee's of Quilters' Haven dinner on Sat nite), I got my hair chopped this morning. It's about 4-6" shorter and in a much different style than before. It looks perfect and smells great (thanks to the 6 styling products). Speaking of tomorrow's lunch/party, I should head downstairs and see how that curried squash soup is doing. Wish I could put a scratch'n sniff patch on the blog so that you can smell what I smell. Yummy!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Ya know it's dangerous leaving me at home by myself. Hubby is working late all this week so I've been a slightly bad girl (and it's only Monday!). I am eating a previously frozen meat pie while shopping for yarn from Ravely stashes - not a productive way to spend my time. I seem to have purchased some Sweet Georgia sock yarn and some recycled sari silk. Yikes! And there were many other tempting yarns. Luckily, my PayPal account is now empty so maybe that'll stop me.

I have been knitting. I finished the other 2 Christmas ornaments. BTW, thanks for all the lovely comments about the first 2. They look the same as the other ones except they're knit out of some Sweet Georgia (colour Blue Steel) sock leftovers.

I basted a lap quilt. I don't want to spoil the surprise so no pics yet. Maybe later this week.

I also started a mitten for myself. I'm using a fingerless mitten pattern and trying to make it a full mitten. I've only just reached the base of the thumb so I've still got a little ways to go before I panic about shaping the top of the mitten.

Yesterday, hubby dragged out our 13 boxes of Christmas stuff from the crawl space. I spent this morning decorating the inside of the house. There are Christmas towels in the kitchen and bathroom, ornaments are hung all over the kitchen, the dining table is festooned with Christmas candles, placemats, and table runner. My little display of Christmas Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, and Piglet is in the living room. I pulled out the outdoor decorations but I didn't feel like standing outside in the cold. The tree goes up on the weekend when hubby's around. My neighbours across the street put up their tree 2 days after Halloween! And hopefully, the weather will co-operate so that hubby can hang the outdoor Christmas lights.

Speaking of cold, there is a forecast of snow this week so hubby put my snow & ice tires on my car yesterday. I hate being stuck at home so I've always made sure that I have good tires. If I can't go anywhere, it's because the snow's too high for my car to drive through. In which case, I'll strap on the cross country skis :)

And I can't post without a picture... Ricky was really enjoying the sunshine yesterday.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Yesterday was hand knit sock laundry day. Out of the 13 pairs of hand knit socks in our household, 12 pairs got washed. I really need to find more vinyl placemats to make myself extra sock blockers. The bathroom smelled very sheepy all day long.

I also went out for lunch with a friend of mine. Tricia is the host of the Great Canadian Shop Hop show that is broadcast on QNN. We went to the Thread Bear tea room (due to close just before Christmas; the quilt shop will be closing in March) for one last lunch and tea. I stocked up on Belgian Chocolate Rooibos tea leaves and I bought myself a tea leaf strainer to use with my teapot. After lunch, we walked upstairs to the quilt shop and I bought some great pasta fabric.

In the evening, I did some Christmas knitting. This time, I made some ornaments.

Two down and 2 more to go. I just can't decide what yarn to use for the other 2. I have so many sock yarn scraps! And yes, the "knitting needles" are toothpicks with seed beeds glued to the ends!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

I took Mom's cardi to knit nite and wove in the ends. Now, it's truly finished.

Pattern: Lion Brand Cropped Raglan SweaterYarn: Bernat Denimstyle; 6 skeins of weathered roseNeedles: 4.5mm and 5mm Addi Turbo circsNotes: knitted a longer body and long sleeves, cast on for the small size but knit according to the size medium instructions

I met up with my weekly quilting group today and we tried a new place for lunch called Kiss Ya Mama. It's run by Chef Lisa (of Superstar Chef Challenge). I had the jerk chicken and it was yummy! And huge! I have enough leftover for supper (although, I might have to skip supper since we didn't finish eating til almost 4pm). And I tried the ginger beer - the best that I've ever had. I'll definitely take hubby back there as he will appreciate the huge portions.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who's celebrating today. I am thankful that I will never run out of sock yarn to buy :) LOL!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

There has been lots and lots of knitting (thanks to a boo boo that required 40 rows to be frogged) but it's Anna's Christmas present so no pictures and no details about what's happening. So what else can I talk about?

I went out to IKEA on Monday night to join a different group of knitters (greatervancouverknitters in Yahoo groups). I was there earlier in the summer but I haven't been back until Mon. There were 5 of us - myself, Marina, Mary Jo, Maryann, and Margaret. We were working on various things. Marina was knitting toques for male family members (all the females are getting felted bags). Margaret was making a vest for her husband (he only wears vests - even sleeping in them!). Mary Jo was making a sweater for herself. Maryann was knitting socks. I had a good time and I got a lot done.

My Mom and I went on a Christmas shopping blitz yesterday. We hit the big mall and bought tons of stuff. I also had to buy birthday presents for my Dad, a niece, and a friend. I was a good girl and didn't buy anything for myself other than a paper advent calendar.

I mooched supper from my parents because hubby was working late so I didn't need to be home. Dad made pasta with meatballs (he makes killer meatballs). It was a nice visit but a little strange. Here are some things that I need to remember:- bring your own parmesan cheese- if you want to drink anything other than instant coffee, green tea, gatorade, or water, bring it yourself- don't let Dad see the top of your head otherwise, you'll hear the words, "You've got a lot of grey hair!"- make sure there's ink in the printer before you show Mom any patterns on Ravelry- bring warm clothes cuz the house is cold

And it is cold outside! I put on my jacket and went out to scrape the frost off my car this morning. I had to come back inside and switch to my down coat (the one that makes me look like the Michelin woman). Brrrr!

Well, I should get back to the knitting. Only a month and a few days til Christmas! Eeeep!

Monday, November 19, 2007

I am much calmer today about the laptop. I was able to pull off most of the files that I needed. But I'm still unhappy that the hard drive died. We have 3 options - buy a new HD and re-install everything (least expensive solution but time consuming with a certain amount of uncertainty), buy a new laptop (pricier option but comes loaded with pretty much everything), or buy a new desktop (possibly the better long term solution). After some discussion, it's been decided that we'll share the desktop computer for now (I do have my own bootable drive) and we'll decide what to do after Christmas when we'll have more time to mess around.

I finished the great Coriolis experiment.

Following the instructions/charts to the letter, I have a sock that is too big around and too long. Additionally, changing the round toe to a flat toe screwed up the location of the band at the heel and so the band stitches got eaten up by the heel flap. I was hoping for a spiraling Coriolis but it turns out that I just have a simple Coriolis sock. When I start the next sock, I will go down 2 or 3 sizes. And when I start knitting the band, I'll try starting it on the sole stitches to see if that changes the location wrt the heel.

And I've resumed Christmas knitting (no - I still haven't woven the ends on Mom's cardi).

Sunday, November 18, 2007

My laptop's hard drive is thisclose to going to the hardware graveyard in the sky. I have spent all morning manually copying files to a USB stick. I tried rebooting the laptop but there are errors all over the place - there is no taskbar, no Start menu, no explorer, nothing. I can't even shut the laptop down. I am grateful that command line functions seem to be working so that I can rescue my files.

Hubby is currently saving system files for me - mostly licence keys for various software.

I know what my upcoming week will be like - buying/installing a new HD, installing the OS, installing software, etc. If you hear screams of anguish, it's just me. So much for Christmas knitting...

Friday, November 16, 2007

They say things happen in 3s. In one day, I found out a friend's cat passed away at the age of 20, another friend's brother passed away from a heart attack, and the doors to the quilt store where I worked, closed for the last time. Sigh... But this means that all the bad news is out of the way and I'll have a better weekend, right?

There hasn't been much knitting. I did finish knitting Mom's cardi but I'm too lazy to weave in all the ends so it's just sitting there mocking me.

I'm at the heel turn on my spiraling coriolis sock. The sock is a total failure but I'm learning lots. I know that it's too wide and now, there's a problem with the band. Because I knit a flat toe, I couldn't shift the stitches so that the band passes just above the heel turn. Right now, it will just dead end at the heel which makes it just the simple coriolis sock. I have to figure out how to make that pattern work with a flat toe.

As a little pick-me-up, I went out for a little retail therapy this morning. I got some absolutely fab shoes.

Monday, November 12, 2007

I'm all worn out again. Hubby left on Fri morning so we were busy shopping at Circle Craft on Wed. I went back to the craft fair on Fri to buy a few more things sans hubby.

I was a good girl and didn't buy any yarn from Indigo Moon. But that's because this arrived on Tues:

I have 10 skeins of this lovely Koigu KPPPM.

I did buy myself a lovely gravy/sauce boat from Quasimodo Pottery (to go with all the Quasimodo that I already own). I really love their stuff.

And there's been knitting.

I finished the sleeves and the left band is done. I've got about half of the right band knit and then there's the finishing. For a top-down raglan that's knit in one piece, there are a lot of ends to weave in.

Most of this weekend was spent helping out at my lqs. They were holding a big garage sale to sell off all store fixtures as well as regular stock. It was pretty busy on Sat but a lot quieter on Sun. I tried very hard to restrain myself but I bought a lot of fabric.

My best purchase was 2 embroidered quilt tops - $10 each.

No one knows where they came from or what they were doing in the back office. They had been sitting out all day and no one was interested in them so I had to take them home with me.

I suspect all the embroidery was done by one person. In the larger quilt top (5 blocks across and 9 blocks down), most of the embroidery has been done on a pale green muslin. A few of the blocks are made of a natural muslin. After the blocks were sewn together, someone embroidered over the seams.

The second quilt top (4 blocks across and 9 blocks down) is a bit of a mystery. Most of the blocks are natural muslin but there are a few that are pale green. And if you look closely, you can see that the seams have been embroidered between the pale green squares but nowhere else. It's as if some of the blocks were taken from the other quilt top to make this one. This second quilt top follows the same block layout as the first one but the flower blocks aren't as carefully oriented. The flowers are sideways.

I am trying to figure out what to do with it all. Overall, the individual blocks are in good shape. One of the colours ran in the poppy block and it transferred to the second quilt top. I may or may not reuse those 2 blocks. There is one block that was pieced from 2 smaller bits of fabric and then the flower embroidered over the seam. The seam allowance was a little skimpy and the block is coming apart. I don't know if it can be rescued successfully.

There are a few other issues that I need to deal with. The tops were washed in a washing machine because the long tails from the embroidery threads have tangled with the frayed edges of the blocks. There are huge clumps on the back. I will need to clean that up and ensure that the embroidery thread tails are properly secured. I know that I will completely disassemble the smaller quilt top because it bugs me that the flowers are sideways.

Anyways, this will be a project that will keep me busy for awhile. I bought an ergonomic stitch ripper to help with all that stitch ripping.

So here's my theory about the yarn weights... It's all about imperial vs. metric. Base yarn seems to be sold by the ounce or pound. One pound is approx. 454g. So 4oz is 113.5g and if you split that into 2 skeins, each one is 56.75g. Maybe the weight of the yarn depends on the source of the base yarn. If it's being bought/sold in imperial measures, you get a little more. This makes sense when you look at my yarn stash - a good amount of it is hand dyed/painted with the base yarn purchased probably in the US. These skeins are well over the weight listed (Koigu is the exception). But yarns from Europe seem to be right on or even slightly less.

Polly's theory is that US sock yarns are more generous than the British yarns. She's going to weigh more of her sock yarn and we'll see how her numbers compare with mine.

ETA: As per Carol's request, I've included the weight of the yarn as printed on the label. I will be weighing more sock yarn after they've come out of quarantine (aka the deep freezer). I have a theory about the North American vs. European yarn weights but I want to finish weighing all my yarn first.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

(This is a whine-y knitting post. I can't help it - I'm in that kind of a mood this morning.)

So here are the things that are annoying me today:1. A knitting book that won't stay open. I am thisclose to scanning in the whole dumb book, printing it out on paper, and putting it all in a binder. Seriously, I do not have time to fiddle with a book that keeps slamming shut while I try to read and execute some complicated knitting maneuver. I have 2 words for printers - spiral binding!

2. A pattern that requires you to look in 6 different places in the book for instructions (pattern starts on page 59, pattern jumps to pg 57 and then back to 59, toe instructions on pg 126, heel instructions on pg 120 and pgs 14 & 15, and cuff instructions on page 130). And did I mention it's a pain in the ass to keep the book open on these pages?

3. And when you think you're cruising...

The sock's too big. Can you see that the sock blocker is kinda swimming around in the foot? I double checked my measurements, I consulted the charts, and after a day of knitting - it's going in the frog pond. I'll never wear anything this loose. So a warning for you knitters looking at making the Coriolis sock - take half an inch (or more) off your mid-foot measurement before looking in the chart.

So what am I going to do? I am going to find some scrap/leftover sock yarn and I am going to knit one single sock - following the instructions to the letter. I will put the sock on, I will note all areas of dislike, and I will modify the pattern and knit the socks with the good yarn. It seems like a lot of work but if I don't understand this pattern, I'll never be able to make socks that fit myself and other people. And since I don't have a brilliant mind like Cat Bordhi, I won't be able to figure this out until I knit the whole thing.

This sock hasn't been a total failure. I have discovered that if you are using hand painted sock yarn and you think it's going to pool, it won't once you start the arch. You can see that after I finished the short row toe, there is a blue stripe spiraling around the foot. But it stops when I start knitting the Coriolis band. Cool.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Saturday was a bleary day - rainy and cold. What a good way to spend it inside at the Langley Weavers' and Spinners' guild annual sale. I went with 2 other knitters - Grete and her daughter, Emma.

I bought a skein of llama (from Monty)/merino blend handspun, some boozy honey, and root beer candies. I bought something else as well but it's a secret until Christmas.

Here's a close up of the yarn:

Surprise - it's purple.

Grete bought some lovely handspun, too but I don't have any pictures.

After the sale, we walked over to the Lampliter and had some lunch. Then we walked around Fort Langley for some light shopping. Emma bought this pretty dresser set from the antique mall. I saw lots of old metal sock blockers but they were all way too big for my socks.

When I got home, I crashed and had a big nap. I was sooo tired.

I finished knitting hubby's Christmas sox yesterday. They're huge! I swear they're long enough for me to wear as sleeves (if I chopped the toes off).

Yarn: ONline supersocke 6ply Winter (150g per skein); colour 882Pattern: generic toe up; short row heels and toes; increased 4 stitches after heel turn; 3x1 ribbing in the leg and switching to 2x2 ribbing for the cuffNeedles: 2.75mmComments: My digital scale must be off because I tried to use up every last inch of yarn. I thought I'd split the ball equally but I probably still have enough to knit at least one more inch on each sock. I can squeeze a pair of hubby socks from a single 150g skein of yarn but just barely.

And here's a great picture that hubby took of me holding Ricky:

Ricky doesn't like being held (can you tell by his expression?) so this is a rare picture.

Monday, November 5, 2007

A big thank you goes to my Monkey pal (whoever you are) for all my lovely Monkey goodies. Lookit all the stuff that I got!

My package included the Thelonius sock pattern, Monkey lip balm, a project bag made with sock monkey fabric (I have some of that fabric in my stash :), some notecards, a mini calendar, enough yarn for not one but TWO pairs of socks (Louet Gems in Violet and Lorna's Laces in Black Purl), leftover sock yarn, of course, my Monkey socks (Socks That Rock in Tanzanite), and last but not least, 3 adorable monkey stitch markers. One of them is even holding a teeny tiny banana:

And here's a better picture of my Monkey socks:

I have been lusting after STR yarn for awhile now. My pal knew about my obsession. And when I saw these socks last week, I wanted some STR in Tanzanite. And now, I've got some! Talk about perfect!

And guess what - I still don't know who my swap pal is. The notecard instructed me to email her/him and they would reveal themselves to me. I have not received a reply yet. So many thanks to A. B. in California. I hope to find out who you are soon!

ETA: She has revealed herself! My Monkey pal is Manda (knitpsycho on Ravelry). And she's having a contest. Go and enter (you have until Fri Nov 9th) and you may win some yarny goodness!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Friday night was the last big pizza party at my lqs. The doors will be closing on Nov 14th after being open for 11 years. Many customers, class instructors, and past/present employees were present to wish the three owners a fond farewell.

They were presented with their (as yet) unfinished signature quilts. Many tears were shed.

Our quilt group meets every Thurs in the store's classroom. When we heard that the store was closing, we agreed that we should organize a signature quilt. I drafted up the Friendship star block and we passed out the block instructions with a request to make 3 blocks - one for each of the quilts. We had a great response with many offers to help finish the quilts. The blocks were circulated amongst the local quilt guilds for more signatures and we even had some blocks at the store for customers to sign. It's been a lot of work but it was worth it to see their surprised expressions. I'm just impressed that we managed to keep it a secret - LOL.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

It's been a whirlwind 2 days and I am finally catching my breath (and dumping several hundred pictures onto the laptop). I'll need to spread everything out over several posts so that I don't bore y'all to death.

On Thurs, the postperson rang but I wasn't home. I was expecting 2 parcels - some Koigu from a destash and my Monkey Swap package. So first thing Friday morning, I picked up the parcel and it was my Monkey Swap package!!! Despite being sorely tempted to rip open the box in the car, I was in a rush so I had to throw it in the trunk and open it later. I was hurrying to meet a fellow Raveller who was visiting from London, England.

We were meeting at a local quilt show. After ending up on the wrong Triumph Street (I did not know there were 2), her chauffeur finally dropped her off on the correct one. Gabrielle brought me some lovely yarn from England. How thoughtful!

We went inside and looked at a few quilts together but I turned left at the end of the aisle and she went in a different direction. It's a small show so I knew we would easily find each other later on. I saw lots of neat quilts. There was one made of 18,000 half inch (finished size) squares. Yikes! I bumped into a friend who alerted me to a thread sale at one of the vendors so I rushed over there to find out that she (and her friends) had bought all the good colours and didn't leave any for me. Oh well... I did buy some cat fabric and some variegated Aurifil thread instead:

After the quilt show, we headed over to Toko (one of my favourite restaurants) for lunch. It's a noodle factory with a tiny slice at the front of the building converted to a restaurant. Hubby and I have been eating there for years and we love it. We ordered gyoza, agedashi tofu, and the house special chow mein. Yum! I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Now the real fun began - off to the yarn shops! Our first stop was Birkeland Bros Wool. It's a very small shop but it's the oldest yarn store in town so it's a bit of a historical landmark. Gabrielle went a little crazy and bought a lot of Handmaiden yarn - Casbah sock, Sea Silk, and several hanks of thick'n thin bulky can't-remember-the-name-of-it. I don't think it's all for herself. In a moment of weakness, I bought a skein of Casbah sock, too. Could you say no to this skein of yummy superwash merino/cashmere/nylon?

I didn't think so.

Our next stop was Three Bags Full. Finally - an opportunity to open my Monkey package. Yippee! The first thing I unwrapped was my Monkey socks. I immediately put one on.

I will post more details about the socks and my Monkey goodies tomorrow. I'll just say that the socks are awesome and I was thoroughly spoiled. Thank you Monkey Pal - whoever you are.

After all the Monkey excitement, Gabrielle got down to some serious shopping.

What you don't see is her growing pile of goodies...

I had a good look at the new Lexie Barnes bags and scoped out the Noro Silk Garden Lite. While I was there, I exchanged my defective Addis for a new one so that I can finish knitting my Mom's cardi.

Gabrielle's chauffeur arrived before she bought out the store and we parted ways. It was great to meet her and I had a great day and I hope she did, too.

On my way home, I stopped at a fabric store to look for fabric to make hubby more pjs. There wasn't anything suitable but I did buy a ton of buttons (click on the picture to embiggen).

Some of the buttons are just for fun - like the frogs and the hippos. The rest are potential buttons for a knitted Christmas gift. But now that I look at the pattern, I need 9 buttons and I only bought 8 of some of them. Dang it.

I was going to blog about my Fri evening in this post (I left the house at 9:15am, was home for an hour between 5:30 and 6:30pm, and didn't get home again until 10:45pm) but I think you're probably bored by now so I'll save that for tomorrow, too. But before I go, I'll leave you a picture of what I've been knitting - hubby's Christmas socks.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

I don't have a lot of time to type up a proper post but a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

I finished sewing up the reusable fabric shopping bags.

The fireworks really spooked Ricky. The lump under the quilt, just to the right of Phoebe is Ricky.

See -

BTW, Phoebe is keeping my Monkey pattern warm by sleeping on it. I tried to pull it out but she slapped me.

Confession - the pumpkin pictures I posted yesterday were from last year. This is what our pumpkins looked like this year:

Mine is on the right and hubby carved the one on the left.

And what do you do with your pumpkin innards? I roasted the seeds in my skillet. Yum!!!

We didn't get many kids at our door - maybe 14 or 15 in total and I only opened the door 4 times. That leaves a lot of time for knitting. I finished a pair of Monkey socks that have been languishing in the wip pile since June.

Yarn: Sweet Georgia handpainted sock yarn in Blue Steel; last year's Christmas gift (one of many yarns) from my bfNeedles: 2.5mm dpnsPattern: Monkey by Cookie A.Notes: These are my 25th pair of completed sox. I have knit Monkey 3 times now. I have 2 different lace socks that are suffering from SSS. I don't know why I can knit Monkey multiple times but I'm incapable of finishing off Canal du Midi or Wyvern.